DreamHack Valencia 2017 Preview

11 July 2017 09:19

DreamHack comes to Valencia from Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th July, one of the European stops on the World Tour. Held at Feria de Valencia, this will be the eighth edition of DreamHack Valencia, and the event has been split into three different areas – the LAN Area, eSports Area and Expo Area. The eSports Area will host tournaments in a number of different games including CS:GO, League of Legends, Starcraft II and Hearthstone, previewed below.

CS:GO

The DreamHack Astro Open CS:GO sees eight teams split into two groups of four for the chance to claim their share of the $100,000 prize pool. Teams will play in a GSL format over three days with best-of-one group stages and best-of-three elimination matches leading to the grand final.

Groups

The groups are:

Group A:

Team EnVyUs- France

Misfits- America

Heroic- Denmark

KPI Gaming- Spain

Group B:

Counter Logic Gaming- America

Ninjas in Pyjamas- Sweden

Red Reserve- Sweden

NRG eSports- America

The Format

The top two teams from each group advance to the play-offs, and Group A sees Team EnVyUs open proceedings against KPI Gaming and Misfits come up against Heroic. In Group B, Counter Logic Gaming clash with NRG eSports and Ninjas in Pyjamas face Red Reserve.

Counter Logic Gaming, Team EnVyUs, Heroic, Misfits and Ninjas in Pyjamas all received direct invites, whilst Red Reserve, KPI Gaming and NRG eSports all qualified from their respective European, Iberian and North American qualifying regions. Red Reserve’s path to Valencia saw them top the European qualification section in June with a 3-0 quarter-final victory over Gux & Friends, 2-0 semi-final win over Outlaws and a 2-1 grand final triumph over Team LDLC.com. They lost the Overpass map 16-7, but came back to claim victory in Mirage and Inferno 16-12 and 16-8.

KPI Gaming’s team of Juan Carlos "meisoN" Chacón, Alejandro "mopoz" Fernández-Quejo Cano, Javier "dragunov" Sánchez , Francesc "donQ" Savall and Alejandro "ALEX" Masanet fought off their competition to prevail in the Iberian qualifiers with a convincing 2-0 grand final win over Giants Gaming. NRG eSports earnt their spot at the DreamHack Valencia Open 2017 with a 2-0 North American grand final victory over Luminosity. 27-year-old Peter 'ptr' Gurney stood out for the victors with a 42-22 K-D, 80.8 ADR and 85.7% KAST.

Prize Pool

The prize pool is:

1st place - $50,000

2nd place - $20,000

3rd place - $10,000

4th place - $10,000

5th place - $3,000

6th place - $3,000

7th place - $2,000

8th place - $2,000

League of Legends

An $11,000 prize pool will be up for grabs when the eight best Spanish-based LoL teams do battle over two days in a best-of-three single elimination tournament.

Prize Pool

The teams are yet to be announced, but the prize pool is:

1st place – 6,000€

2nd place – 3,500€

3rd place – 1,500€

Overwatch

The Overwatch tournament in Valencia will see eight teams battle it out in a best-of-three group phase leading to the play-offs. The winner will receive €3,000 of the €4,500 prize pool and, although the teams are yet to be announced, there should be some gaming of the highest order on show. There will be one qualifier each from Sevilla, Malaga, Mallorca, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid and two from Valencia.

Prize Pool

The prize pool is:

1st place – 3,000€

2nd place – 1,000€

3rd place – 500€

Starcraft 2

16 of the players have qualified via the WCS Circuit program, and receive automatic entry to Group Stage Three. Four players apiece have qualified from North America and Europe regions, with two players apiece qualifying from Latin America, China, Taiwan and Australia/New Zealand/SEA.

The Starcraft II action begins with three group stages in a best-of-three, Dual-Tournament (GSL) format followed by a single-elimination bracket.

The Group Stage One is an open tournament consisting of 64 players who have signed up, and the top two teams advance from dual-tournament best-of-three groups. Group Stage Two then sees the top 32 players from Group Stage One compete in another dual-tournament best-of-three group. The top two teams advance once again, leading to Group Stage Three where the 16 players come up against 16 players from WCS Challenger, once more in dual-tournament best-of-three groups. The top two players from each group advance to Bracket Stage Seeding, where #1 Group Stage take on #2 Group Stage, and the rounds of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals are all best-of-five before the best-of-seven grand final.

Prize Pool

The prize pool and share of WCS points is:

1st place - $25,000 and 3,000 WCS points

2nd place - $10,000 and 1,400 WCS points

3rd place - $6,500 and 900 WCS points

4th place - $6,500 and 900 WCS points

5th to 8th place - $4,000 and 600 WCS points

9th to 16th place - $2,500 and 300 WCS points

17th to 32nd place - $1,000

Hearthstone

The Hearthstone Grand Prix 2016 saw a record number of entries, and 2017 is even bigger and better than before with more than 200 competitors.

The Format

The action is an open Swiss format with the top 16 players then moving onto a single-elimination stage. The games will be a best-of-five Last Hero Standing with 1 ban.

Prize Pool

The main event sees a $25,000 prize pool, split as follows:

1st place - $7,500

2nd place - $3,500

3rd place - $2,050

4th place - $2,050

5th to 8th place - $1,125

9th to 16th place - $675

There will also be Xbox One vs. PS4 – Paladins Console Wars, Paladins Summer Premier, Smite Pro League Summer Finals and Smite Console League Summer Finals contested in Valencia. There’s DreamHack events in Atlanta, Montreal, Denver and Elmia for eSports fans to look forward to later in the year, but for now, all eyes will be on who prevails in Spain.